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probably an opportunity here, since all of the VCs are asking for the same exact information, have a website that has the information for multiple companies in
by vaksel 18y ago
probably an opportunity here, since all of the VCs are asking for the same exact information, have a website that has the information for multiple companies in the same place
- teej 18y agoThat's what CrunchBase (http://www.crunchbase.com/ http://www.crunchbase.com/) is. The phone call definitely serves more of a purpose beyond data collection - pitching the company and verifying legitimacy.
- vaksel 18y agoWhat do you mean by verifying legitimacy?
- teej 18y agoMaking sure there's actually a company behind the website and not just a 13-year-old kid who's good at FrontPage.
- vaksel 18y agoif its a startup that they think is good enough to pitch to, why should they care?
- teej 18y agoBecause VCs invest in teams with good ideas not in ideas alone.
- vaksel 18y agoyes at the earliest stage, when its just an idea, and nothing more. But we are talking about something that has already been built. Something that is already popular enough to catch the eye of VCs. So obviously the team is good enough, if they arrived at that stage. If they didn't have a good team, they wouldn't have arrived at that stage to be hounded by VCs.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- unalone 18y agoThen tell us about your personal experience. Don't make claims without explaining yourself. EDIT: Or you can delete your post, Teej, which said "VCs don't invest in things that are actually relevant, take it from personal experience." If you don't want to explain something, then just say it, apologize, and move on. Don't try to hide what you said.
- teej 18y agoIt wasn't a matter of hiding what I said. For legal reasons, I can't really comment on my experience. I'm sorry that I can't back up my opinion.
- unalone 18y agoAh! Very sorry. That makes sense.
- ia 18y ago"I am generally hostile." apparently.
- unalone 18y agoHostile is a good way to be. It means forcing people into explaining themselves and the things they do. At the same time, it's a state of mind that lets yourself admit you're wrong, which I was this time.
- mixmax 18y agoNot only at the idea stage. VC's obviously want a team that isn't simply capable of launching a site and get 10.000 users. They're looking for a team that can make it into a business that's worth millions. Not many teams can do this. So yes, people matter, both in the very earliest stages, mature companies and everything in between. If you don't believe me look at Apple's stockprice every time there's a story on their CEO's bad health. The team that built a site and got 10.000 users may not be capable of driving it forward to a real large-scale business. Maybe they just got lucky, maybe they don't really care for the money but just want to have fun, maybe they have no idea how to manage other people. The team in a companys earliest stages doesn't say a lot about how well they will perform in the setting of a larger company, which they will hopefully become.
- Harkins 18y agoBecause they are humans who need to form social connections. If they were programmers they would realize the information was logically equivalent whether it was gathered from CrunchBase, the company website, or a phone call with a smooth-voiced young man who claims to be a founder.
- josefresco 18y agoIf there's a 13 year old using FrontPage to build his startup in this day and age, I definitely want to meet him.